I still say keep your coins, the game isn't over yet.
Keep your eye on the difficulty, coins minted and the shipping date of these new ASIC machines, that's what I think.
Considering buying one myself, but not yet, more investigation needed...
Topic: Newbie first post here: My 3-year BTC Story (Read 528 times)
this is a repost from a bitcoin thread i started on 2darkpark.com. with some editing and updating. The story itself tho is entirely accurate ±3% 
My Bitcoin Story
I was first introduced to bitcoin via slashdot I believe, Sometime in 2010. I know from blockchain that I got my first 5 bitcoins in July 2010. It was from a bitcoin faucet website that would just give you 5 bitcoins for free. It was around this time that bitcoin passed the 1 cent per BTC value. Yay.
Fast forward to June 6th, 2011. It had been awhile since i looked into BTC (or even started up the BTC software) but i had read that prices were going up somewhere. After checking the market, I signed up at Mt Gox & signed up at Dwolla, which is what Mt Gox uses to transfer funds to people in US at the time. (Bitcoin -> USD$)
So on June 7th 2011 the market started around 18.50$ per bitcoin. After looking at Mt Gox's fees and Dwolla fees (0.65% and 0.25$ per transfer respectively) I decided to transfer 1.00 Bitcoin to my MtG account and list it for sale for 20.38. which after transfer fees *should* end up being $19.99 added to my checking account. (and I still have .008$ in my MtG account, lol)
June 8th 2011, I check and the BTC that I listed had been sold. And the current Market high for the day is over 30.00. Whoa. or Crap! But really that's ok, This was just an experiment for me back then, to see if I could actually transfer/convert a BTC -> USD$. At the time my thought was "If the market crashes tomorrow and i loose the 4*30$ that i could get right now, i won't even care."
Timeline-ish-order-of-events:
Bitcoin -> MtG Account took around an hour maybe less for confirmation.
Listed on MtG 1.00 Bitcoin for sale @ 20.38
MtG BitCoin sale happend around 6:52 PM Eastern 6/7/11.
MtG USD$ -> Dwolla Account transfer started at 10:10 AM this morning. (MtG Warns it can take up to a few days for transfer to be authorized or something, So we'll see how long this actually takes to complete.)
was beginning to wonder what was taking so long. a bit later I update: "yay transfer finally went thru (from MtG -> Dwolla) coolness. now transferring from Dwolla -> Bank"
Fast forward to April 15th 2013. I havn't touched BTC since my 2011 "experiment" so I still have my 4 BTC. I read online that BTC recently spiked up to 260$+ So I spend a lot of time googling and reading up on whats been happening in the world of bitcoins. The last thing I had remembered was people buying out AMD Graphic cards for mining. But ah how the times have changed. FPGA's and now ASIC miners, more BTC market drama...
April 20th 2013. I've done lots of reading, I've sent a few BTC to MTG just to play the market guessing game. I've also looked into Butterfly Labs, read about all the drama, delays, ect ect but I find a video on youtube "BFL 5 GH/s Miner Demo" ...proof of a working product. Good enough for me, 2.4913 bitcoins later my BFL Jalapeno order is placed. Not sure if it was the right move, but hours later I find another youtube video: "BFL Jalapeno Unboxing and Demo" with a real live person using one. This makes me feel a bit better. Now I am well aware that it will be months before I personally see any product from BFL. Their website stated (at the time of my order) orders placed would be shipped around July but my own estimate is more like September. I guess time will tell.
My thinking was this: I have these bitcoins. I could've sold them all for ~4*130$. But I don't want to do that. I don't need the money now. I think that later on they will be worth more. If I get this machine, it will pay for itself (in BTC value) fairly quickly. If BTC value crashes completely... well i would have lost the value of those 4 BTCs anyway. So I really only have two logical options: Buy this little thing for 2.5 BTC so that later on I will have more BTC to use/sell than I do now... or sell all my BTC now and get out. So that is why I decided on the purchase option.
My Bitcoin Story
I was first introduced to bitcoin via slashdot I believe, Sometime in 2010. I know from blockchain that I got my first 5 bitcoins in July 2010. It was from a bitcoin faucet website that would just give you 5 bitcoins for free. It was around this time that bitcoin passed the 1 cent per BTC value. Yay.
Fast forward to June 6th, 2011. It had been awhile since i looked into BTC (or even started up the BTC software) but i had read that prices were going up somewhere. After checking the market, I signed up at Mt Gox & signed up at Dwolla, which is what Mt Gox uses to transfer funds to people in US at the time. (Bitcoin -> USD$)
So on June 7th 2011 the market started around 18.50$ per bitcoin. After looking at Mt Gox's fees and Dwolla fees (0.65% and 0.25$ per transfer respectively) I decided to transfer 1.00 Bitcoin to my MtG account and list it for sale for 20.38. which after transfer fees *should* end up being $19.99 added to my checking account. (and I still have .008$ in my MtG account, lol)
June 8th 2011, I check and the BTC that I listed had been sold. And the current Market high for the day is over 30.00. Whoa. or Crap! But really that's ok, This was just an experiment for me back then, to see if I could actually transfer/convert a BTC -> USD$. At the time my thought was "If the market crashes tomorrow and i loose the 4*30$ that i could get right now, i won't even care."
Timeline-ish-order-of-events:
Bitcoin -> MtG Account took around an hour maybe less for confirmation.
Listed on MtG 1.00 Bitcoin for sale @ 20.38
MtG BitCoin sale happend around 6:52 PM Eastern 6/7/11.
MtG USD$ -> Dwolla Account transfer started at 10:10 AM this morning. (MtG Warns it can take up to a few days for transfer to be authorized or something, So we'll see how long this actually takes to complete.)
Quote from: MtGox
Announce: Dwolla withdraw delayed for technical reasons, will be fixed friday! Withdraws are not lost, just pending.
was beginning to wonder what was taking so long. a bit later I update: "yay transfer finally went thru (from MtG -> Dwolla) coolness. now transferring from Dwolla -> Bank"
Quote
You have successfully submitted a request to withdraw $19.99 from your Dwolla account into [angryrobs account]. The funds will be available within 1-3 business days.
Fast forward to April 15th 2013. I havn't touched BTC since my 2011 "experiment" so I still have my 4 BTC. I read online that BTC recently spiked up to 260$+ So I spend a lot of time googling and reading up on whats been happening in the world of bitcoins. The last thing I had remembered was people buying out AMD Graphic cards for mining. But ah how the times have changed. FPGA's and now ASIC miners, more BTC market drama...
April 20th 2013. I've done lots of reading, I've sent a few BTC to MTG just to play the market guessing game. I've also looked into Butterfly Labs, read about all the drama, delays, ect ect but I find a video on youtube "BFL 5 GH/s Miner Demo" ...proof of a working product. Good enough for me, 2.4913 bitcoins later my BFL Jalapeno order is placed. Not sure if it was the right move, but hours later I find another youtube video: "BFL Jalapeno Unboxing and Demo" with a real live person using one. This makes me feel a bit better. Now I am well aware that it will be months before I personally see any product from BFL. Their website stated (at the time of my order) orders placed would be shipped around July but my own estimate is more like September. I guess time will tell.
My thinking was this: I have these bitcoins. I could've sold them all for ~4*130$. But I don't want to do that. I don't need the money now. I think that later on they will be worth more. If I get this machine, it will pay for itself (in BTC value) fairly quickly. If BTC value crashes completely... well i would have lost the value of those 4 BTCs anyway. So I really only have two logical options: Buy this little thing for 2.5 BTC so that later on I will have more BTC to use/sell than I do now... or sell all my BTC now and get out. So that is why I decided on the purchase option.
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